Why it works: Potato and ginger work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 992 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Hop Yeast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the hop water
Boil the water, hops, and potatoes together until the potatoes are done.
Remove the potatoes and mash them into the water.
Make the dough
Add the flour, salt, sugar, and ginger to the mixture and scald together with the hop water.
Let the mixture cool until almost cold, then add the baker's yeast.
Allow it to stand in a warm place until it becomes light.
Store
Store it in the cellar, closely covered. It will keep for two to three weeks.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Potato + gingertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together992 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Baker's yeast
- Ferments the mixture, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Flour
- Adds starch and structure, thickening the mixture as it is scalded.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body, helping hold moisture in the mixture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a touch of sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast. The mixture must cool until almost cold before the yeast goes in. Yeast cells are killed by excessive heat, so adding it while the mixture is still hot can stop the rise.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, flour, sugar, ginger):
- Mustardfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against hops, flour, sugar, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Potato Bread124 recipes
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes